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Can we trust our Bibles?

As the Lord gave the children of Israel His commands on how they were to relate to one another and to Him, He added this caution: “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you” (Deuteronomy 4:2). It was important that God’s Word not be handled carelessly. It was His revealed truth and therefore needed to be kept intact.

When it comes to the Bible you hold in your hands, you have the benefit of mass production through printing presses. Before this the books of the Bible were copied by hand. The scribes who diligently copied each page did so according to a stringent set of rules to keep errors from occurring. They went beyond just proofreading the pages they copied. They would also count all the letters on the original page; then, after they had copied the page, they would count the letters on the copy to see if the numbers matched. They did this to keep them from copying a word twice, skipping a line, or copying the same line twice. If the count did not match, they would destroy the copy they had worked on so laboriously and start over.

Imagine that! One error in the copy and it was destroyed. It’s no wonder that the copies of the Bible we have today are so consistent with the earliest manuscripts that have been found. The ancient scribes were careful not to add or subtract anything because they knew it was the Word of God.

As you open the pages of your Bible, remember that it is God’s revealed Word. Remember also that it has been carefully preserved through the centuries because the men who copied it revered it as God’s Word. Do you have the same reverence for the Word? If so, don’t merely read it and respect it, let it change you from the inside out.